Pathology

L.B. Sims Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award in the Biological Science

Kaylia Duncan, MS, won the University of Iowa L.B. Sims Outstanding Master's Thesis Award in the Biological Science for her thesis entitled “Dynamics of Tumor Progression And Therapy Response In IL-6 And MYC Driven Plasma Cell Malignancy”. Kaylia will receive a monetary award and a certificate, which will be presented at a special recognition reception in March 2014. As winner of this award, her thesis has been also submitted to the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Distinguished Thesis Award competition.

Kaylia’s mentor of the Pathology MS thesis project, Dr. Siggy Janz, was delighted when he heard the news and stated that “Kaylia was fully deserving of this high-level recognition.” He pointed out that Kaylia demonstrated, for the first time, that integrated FDG-PET/CT imaging affords an excellent research tool for assessing blood cancer development in laboratory mice. Additionally, she showed that this imaging modality permits determination of objective drug responses in tumor-bearing mice treated with the promising investigational proteasome inhibitor, ixazomib. (see article)

Bravo, Kaylia! The Department is proud of you and wishes you best of luck for your PhD project.